“I’m worried about my health, but I’m more worried about where to go if something happens,” Fatima said. “Displacement is not just about losing your home. It’s about losing your privacy, your safety, and your access to health care, especially as a woman.”
Every step we took seemed like it could be our last.
She is one of tens of thousands of women and girls affected by increased violence and insecurity around Aleppo in recent weeks, which has forced large numbers of people to flee, disrupted essential services and closed hospitals.
“We fled under the shelling, with nothing but our fear,” Farida, 39, told the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which is the UN’s sexual and reproductive health agency.
“Every step we took seemed like it could be our last.”
A UNFPA-supported health worker provides essential health care at a clinic in Al-Hassakeh to women and girls forced to flee Aleppo, northern Syria.
unbearable cold
In Aleppo, some 58,000 people remain displaced following recent clashes between the security forces of the transitional government and the Kurdish-majority Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), and insecurity is spreading to surrounding areas.
To make matters worse, winter conditions have only deepened the suffering, with thousands of people now enduring freezing temperatures and taking shelter in makeshift camps, former schools and unfinished buildings across the country.
Ruhan, a mother of three from Aleppo, fled with only what she could carry.
“The cold is unbearable. My biggest fear is keeping my children warm and safe.” she told UNFPA humanitarian workers, who provided her with reproductive health services, counseling and a dignity kit.
Delivering help
More than 890,000 people had been newly displaced as of December 2025. in Syria, adding to the almost seven million already displaced within the country.
Fourteen years of conflict, climate crises and economic decline have left Syria’s recovery fragile and uneven, with immense humanitarian needs and severely damaged health systems.
In response, UNFPA and partners have deployed mobile health teams to reach displaced communities with life-saving sexual and reproductive health care, dignity kits with essential hygiene items and psychosocial counselling.
Around 400,000 pregnant women in Syria struggle to access essential maternity services – a situation made worse by deep funding cuts that began last year and have further restricted access.
Women and girls displaced by violence receive reproductive health support and dignity kits in a neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria.